Daniel Silva's The Cellist, with Putin in the background

The more than acclaimed American writer Daniel Silva says that 'The Cellist' (Ed. Harper Collins, 446 pages) is a work of entertainment and should be read as such. But the reader is free and even the absolute master of his or her own interpretation. Approaching this novel when the Russian dictator-president has invaded Ukraine and is mercilessly bombing and destroying it immediately provokes interest in imagining that the plot of the story could lead to no other outcome than the outbreak of this new world war, because it is indeed universal in its consequences. If the British John le Carré and Frederick Forsyth described for us in their novels the intricacies of Cold War espionage, Daniel Silva introduces us to the continuation of the great intrigues of that world, which Vladimir Putin knows so well from his own experience.

It is best left to the reader to take in the lessons of all the great manifestations of art that surround agent Gabriel Allon. The characters and institutions that appear have fictitious names, but behind them it is not difficult to guess who would be the real protagonists of the money laundering operations in the direct or indirect service of the Kremlin. Nor is it difficult to guess the role played by German banks, perhaps as unwitting accomplices in the shadows, in the war waged by Putin against the West and liberal democracy, to avenge what the Russian president himself defined as the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century: the demise of the Soviet Union.

There are more than a few governments, analysts and ordinary people who, having believed that what they had to do with Russia was a lot of diplomacy, a lot of dialogue and a certain wilful ignorance of its constant attacks on freedoms and its own citizens, now see that Putin has been faithful and constant in his line of attacking by all means, legal or illegal, those who might hinder his "revenge" for the defeat that ended the Cold War.

Silva's novel reveals the role played by Russia's big oligarchs, who until now have been treated with unusual tolerance and laxity in countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany itself, where Putin has placed politicians such as former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder at the top of major energy infrastructure projects.

And then, of course, there is the looming shadow of Donald Trump, where the role played by Russia's immensely powerful espionage and disinformation machine, both in propelling him to the US presidency in 2016 and in the desperate bid for his re-election in 2020, is already more than a strident suspicion. Of Trump's complicity with Putin, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman said that "there is overwhelming evidence that the president, for the first time in our country's history, has engaged in treason by his conduct, whether premeditated, grossly negligent or due to his twisted personality".

Recall the summit between Trump and Putin in Helsinki in July 2018, where the US president, with Putin seated at his side, questioned his own intelligence services' conclusion that Moscow had meddled in the election. Or, further still, what John Bolton wrote, after resigning as national security adviser, asserting that Trump would withdraw the US from NATO if re-elected for a second term.

In light of current events, I beg to differ with the author of 'The Cellist'. He calls it a work of entertainment. I find it a marvellous fictional plot for the reader to explain the whys and wherefores that are bringing the world to the brink of a new hellish cataclysm.